Monday, September 12, 2011

Hooray for the Work!

Happily for us, moves are now on Wednesday, which means
we'll find out tomorrow whether we stay
or go! Sister Housley thinks there'll be a change...I don't know, I want to
stay here till I die (mission death, not real death), AND the Primary Program
is this week! I can't miss that! That's pretty much our feelings summed up.
Supposedly we get five new sisters this time, so there'll be plenty of training
opportunities, especially for Kernek and Johnson. They need children badly :)

As far as this week goes, some big news: Portland's "hypnotist who fell over" and made international news with a phony concussion is, in fact,
married to the Primary 1st counselor. David Days is not a member, but he runs
all the Road Shows, hypnotized half the branch the night he fell over, and just
let the press run with the story until telling them the next day it was just a
setup! What if the hypnotizer was out of commission--would the people still be
in a trance? Now we know. He's filming a reality show at the moment, a sort of
mockumentary on hypnosis, featuring at least one lady turned Martian who went
to bed and woke up in the same trance. Never a dull moment here in the Promised
Land :)

Other news:

Naomi came to church and brought her 7 year old, who went to
Primary, got a part in the Program, and promptly burst into tears when it was
time to go home. Best Sunday yet.

Don't read the Book of Mormon, and DEFINITELY don't pray to
find out if it's true. That's how they get you.

Sometimes I have Elder Holland moments where I want to bang
my fist on the table and get my point across in very large words. For those who
don't listen, the reason why they don't is because they haven't read and they
haven't prayed. You have to do those things. If not, it's like Satan is sitting
on your shoulder and will not let you go. Offend him first, and you'll be free
to receive revelation.

We ran into a super racist lady who said that "yellow
people are taking over the world,” and that "Muslims have a lot to answer
for."

We also stopped this old guy who said that the American Tea
Party is the next Nazi regime or something (Sister Housley had NO idea what he
was talking about) and how he was atheist and started yelling at us for
imposing our beliefs. We tried to walk away, but he tailed us, positively
spitting with rage, saying, "You are going to hell!" Sister Housley
was like, "You are following me." A bunch of teenagers busted out
laughing behind us, and I cracked up all the way to the library. My biggest
concern was how an atheist believes in hell. Confusion.

It's so fun to be a missionary. It's weird to think that
we're approaching my 4th moves already. As a sister, you get about 12 moves? Is
that right? Every month and a half...whatever, I was never good at math. The
time you serve the Lord with all you've got is extremely short. I feel like
time has really picked up these last weeks--my stack of filled planners will be
pretty tall in no time. It's fun to get to the point when you know that your
companion is furious when no one else can see it (typically during a teach with
a waster), or when you know everyone's names in the branch, or when you've got
your favorite TAs mapped out. I have a few favorite places I love to go for “tea,”
and your whole day can be so much better when that happens. I know the Lord is
in this work and He wants it to go forward even more than we do. He's doing a
great job :)